Well - I am a tad chagrined :-)

mhardy6647

A few years back, some of the local hifi gurus staged an impromptu intervention :- ) at my house (in Harvard) on a Sunday afternoon right after an annual Westford antique radio fleamarket. Among the things we did -- tried every pair of 2A3s in the house in my homebrewed (and slightly modified) JE Labs "Simple 2A3" amplifier*. At that time, the clear winners were the somewhat goofy looking "Sofia" brand (Chinese) "mesh plate" (perforated plate) "2A3" (actually, I think, 300B guts with a 2.5 V filament) tubes. They had cojones compared even to vintage RCA dual-plates (I only have one single plate 2A3, so we didn't even try that).

Amp mit Westies by mhardy6647, on Flickr

I've mentioned the very cheap ValveArt (generic Chinese) 2A3 tubes in several recent threads at various places -- my rap has always been: "they're really cheap, they light up really nicely, and they sound pretty decent." I have a pair that came with my Bottlehead Paramour kits, way back when. At the time (ca. 2000), these were about $20 a pop; nowadays, I think the generic ("Sino" brand) 2A3, which I think is the same basic tube, is about $35 a pop.

DSC_0002 by icouldbeahero, on Flickr
(photo taken by my son -- http://icouldbeahero.blogspot.com)

Well -- I haven't actually listened to these for a long, long time. I replaced them in the Paramours with the Sovtek (Russian) 2A3s when they first came on the market. Put the ValveArts in their boxes and on the shelf... where they've sat for over a decade :- P

Last night, I pulled the Sofias out of the amp and stuck in the ValveArts... well... it may be the ol' hifi Placebo Effect, but the cheap-jack ValveArts sound mighty fine to me at the moment! Nice clean, snappy presentation -- really finger-poppin' kind of sound. Listened to Pretzel Logic last night and today to some old Yes (The Yes Album and Close to the Edge tracks) and confirmed my impressions. Nothin' wrong at all with the sound of these unprepossessing DHTs.

DSC_0586 by mhardy6647, on Flickr

Now, it may well be that the Sofias are getting tired -- they've got lots of hours on 'em, even since the above-mentioned play-day one crisp, clear February Sunday afternoon... they are kind of pricey to replace, unfortunately. That said, what I am hearing may just sound different, not really better, so I need to back-substitute the Sofias and see how things sound then.

But the bottom line, I think, is -- don't be afraid to try a pair of cheap 2A3s if you happen to have some sitting around!

*Note, I didn't build this particular amp; it'd have been much uglier if I had! Here's a thread on its genesis, for anyone who's interested.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=112767

mrbiron

That's a cool little piece you got there. I briefly read through the build thread and it appears to be very well built by someone who actually cares.
What are those blue orbs near the speaker wires?

mhardy6647

heh - heh - heh... I couldn't resist trying those for free, from New Zealand.
- Never let it be said that I am not open-minded when it comes to hifi tweaks! ;-)

Here's the scoop on those little discs:
http://www.madscientist-audio.com/blackdiscus/

I mean... for free... why not try?

Do they "work"? I don't know -- I had the immediate sense that their presence did do something positive... not that I can think of any plausible explanation other than the Placebo Effect.

:- P

mrbiron

Don't be bashful, they're...uh....cute.

What is feeding it up the chain?

cnh

I honestly do not know how you do it, Mark. The "storage" space in my brain is almost at its limits, not much room for a lot more before I have an aneurysm! If I started to TRY and remember the #s of esoteric tubes (in addition to everything else) there would be a cascade effect that would cause my grey matter to begin a journey back to the WOMB and the pre-babbling stage!

As Freud once said, and I paraphrase, as we age it is the Death Instinct that takes over and that is as it should be because what we desire is the cessation of pain, emotion, desire, and so on. We wish to rest, to forget, to just cease! To be FREED!

But then again, I am just a little "older" than you! And am often overcome by a certain amount of "revulsion" after discoursing at intense levels to a youthful population in order to educate and inform while reminding those who do not yet "know" what they should "know" and what comes from decades of reading, thinking and scholarship. Some days, I just wish I could hurl all that out into space like a star going Nova and be done forever! With no need to remember anything, not even mySELF!

cnh

mhardy6647

Let's see -- I think I'll tackle Mrbiron's post first! ;- )

The aforementioned albums were on CD -- my CDP is an older Marantz (CD-48, so says the front panel), coax'ed to a cheap jack Chinese DAC (ZhaoLu D2.5, see diykits.com.hk/Zhaolu%20D2.5.htm) that was extensively hot-rodded by New England hi fi guru Kevin Kennedy. Vinyl is... well... you know. Haven't had a chance to spin a rekkid through these 2A3s yet, though -- my little consulting business has been keepin' me atypically busy lately.

cnh -- my head's full of fairly useless trivia; the important stuff's long gone, though. If there really were a Cliff Clavin... I would be he. Maybe I should've put in my time at the USPS...

cubdog

It's always nice to see a picture of that amp. I can only imagine how good it sounds.

cubdog

mhardy6647

It sounds good to me -- but the credit goes to Joeseph Esmilla (who designed it), erstwhile AKer PakProtector (Douglas) who tweaked the design of the voltage amp, and AKer Redboy who built it!

If I had built it, it would have resembled one of my DIY loudspeaker projects, no doubt:

diy from heck front by mhardy6647, on Flickr

I was gonna build an SE 2A3 amp, but when the one above became available, I figured I'd never manage to build one as attractive myself.

Mystery

Omg... you are using Monster IC's.

mhardy6647

Yup -- as found on the swap pile at the Harvard town dump.

drumminman

mrbiron wrote: »

What are those blue orbs near the speaker wires?

I use a bunch of those and have found that they do indeed have positive effect, which for me was additional smoothness, like noise had been removed. They didn't work everywhere I placed them, but the key is to experiment. What works in my rig is placing one each on the transformers in my power amp and line stage, one each on the positive RCA from line stage to power amp. and one on the male plug on the PC to the power amp.

Had a slight negative effect on the digital IC when I ran a separate DAC, as well as on speaker cables.

You can get a free sample to experiment with.